It has long been understood that it is desirable to provide stability to the wearer of athletic shoes designed for use in golf. Because the motion of the player in execution of drives in the course of this game results in instability of footing, footwear has been developed which provides the player improved traction relative to the ground. Ordinarily, this is accomplished by providing, in the soles of shoes designed for golfers, a pattern of metal spikes or cleats which become embedded in the turf, and thus provide the player with a firm footing.
Traditionally, the spikes are secured to a leather, rubber or synthetic shoe sole by means of flat metal plate bearing a series of pronged fasteners or receptacles around its periphery, and a tubular threaded female connector protruding from its center toward the bottom of the shoe. The spike itself is contiguous with a threaded male connector, and is provided with a metal flange containing two holes which permit insertion of a two-pronged key. The two-pronged key, then, is used to turn the flange containing the spike and male connector so as to secure the spike to the receptacle assembly.
As mentioned, receptacles are normally mounted on a flat plate having several receptacles in a desired pattern for a particular shoe size or range of sizes. Recently, these plates have been formed of plastic or nylon in order to substantially reduce the weight of the shoe. In another form two receptacles are mounted on a steel or rubber strap, with several such straps being used to provide the necessary number of receptacles. Alternatively, the receptacles are provided with individual plates or mounting assemblies so that they can be placed in any desired arrangement. However, these tend to be unstable and concentrate the forces applied to each spike on the associated shoe sole so that increased wear results.
Because of the required number of spikes, the metal flange portions add considerable weight to the shoe. Therefore, improvements have been made in the spike assembly by using only a metal frame contiguous with the connector and spike, and embedding the metal frame into a plastic or nylon flange. In this version of the spike assembly, the lighter weight of the plastic or nylon results in a lighter shoe. One design of this modification utilizes a plastic thread on the male connector, as well, but this has proved unsatisfactory due to inadequate strength when used with a metal receptacle. However, when used with a nylon or plastic receptacle, the threads do not tend to become damaged.
A design which has improved on this is one in which a metal spike having a smaller flange and an anchor extension extending from the smaller flange. The anchor extension has a hollow end which is placed through a nylon sleeve having a larger flange seating against the smaller flange. The anchor extension is anchored onto the nylon sleeve by deforming the hollow end after it is passed through the sleeve, thereby capturing the sleeve on the anchor portion. This design also has disadvantages in that it requires the making of the hollow end plus the additional manufacturing step of assembling the sleeve and spike member and then deforming the hollow end of the anchor extension so that the sleeve is captured. Further, this design does not prevent the rotating of the sleeve relative to the spike member, a condition which does not affect the utility of the spike but which can be considered by spike users as an indication of poor quality.
The present invention overcomes these deficiencies. In particular it provides a spike and receptacle assembly which is light weight and easy to manufacture. The spike of the invention provides a metal spike member with an anchor portion completely embedded in a nylon or plastic threaded engagement portion formed with a larger flange portion. By embedding the anchor portion in the threaded nylon engagement portion, the engagement portion is formed in a single step. It is secured by forming in the anchor portion features which prevent the removal and/or rotation of the anchor portion relative to the spike member.
The receptacle assembly of the present invention provides receptacles preferably formed of nylon or plastic on a unitary arm which is adjustably joinable with another similar receptacle member. These assemblies can be assembled with the receptacles in a large variety of possible relative orientations. Thus, the single assembly can accommodate a large variety of shoe sizes and provides an extended base for supporting the spikes.
These and other features and advantages of the present invention will be more clearly understood from the drawings and the following detailed description of the preferred embodiments.